Chapter 26.2- One Thousand Hands

I regretted forgetting to come along with a soldier pill or two. I never used them in training sessions and it had been so long since I went on a mission that it turned out my load out was somewhat lacking in some respects. I still had about a quarter of my reserves left, but that definitely wasn’t to the level of being able to do much in the fights unfolding around me. My chakra sensing was shit at distance, but only an idiot would not be able to feel the strong essences of three tailed beasts actively on this single island. One of them was constrained, that was the eight tails. Sending Kagami to Tobirama had been the right choice. Between the two of them, the eight tails was basically done for as a factor in this fight. I wondered what would be done with the creature and the Jinchuriki once it was captured. A trade back to Kumo seemed unlikely. Seemed very unlikely.

The six tails on the other hand was still going strong. As strong as it could while being harried by the man who would one day go on to earn the title, ‘Shinobi no Kami’ and his three prodigal students. It would fall in no time. The true danger remained the three tails. The three tails and the Mizukage were at the opposite end of the island, wrecking havoc.

I could feel the Uzukage’s chakra from that direction as well. He was the one fighting against the Mizukage while Danzo and the jounin force we’d brought fought off the Three Tails jinchuriki. From the level of the chakra I could feel, that particular jinchuriki wasn’t capable of a full transformation. A small mercy.

I felt the skin around my skull finally finish knitting itself together with a sigh of relief. Medical ninjutsu was coming in clutch. I avoided healing the burns on my face in favour of the ones on my palms. The facial burns were not likely to affect my ability to fight. The damage was cosmetic, and so could be ignored for the time being.

Done with that, I gave a second look at my knee. It was really something that was beyond my ability to heal. Reactivating my byakugan, I noted that the bone hadn’t even had the decency to shatter into even pieces. Some of them were already digging into the surrounding muscle and flesh. I sighed and numbed that part of my body before commanding the mud to lift me until I was standing close to upright.

I picked up my bow in my right hand and sighed before taking it in my left as well and quickly snapping it in two. I cut off the string from the top half and placed it against the floor to test the makeshift cane. It worked well enough, and so I began the journey to where my Granduncle and Kagami stood. The Eight tails had begun to retreat to the form of its jinchuriki in a twisting rictus of flesh and blood.

One thing I’d noticed about being a byakugan user who lacked the classic Hyuga features was that most people just seemed to ignore the byakugan itself. It was almost like they could not see the bulging veins that took up half of my face. It was the only reason I could think of for this man who had managed to remain alive by faking his death and hiding under his comrade’s body to decide that trying to attack me from behind was a good idea.

I’d been content to just let him live with his cowardice, but stupidity was unforgivable. He jumped at me, almost silent if not for the wind whistling through the night air. The ground between us turned into mud and from the mud rose a hand that snatched him by his midsection and then dragged him back in. Jiriaya would surely be excited to see what I’d done with his swamp of the underworld jutsu.